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Enjoy this excerpt from my book in this promo, Return to Neamh.

Sighing, Dal ran his lean fingers through his perpetually sun-bleached blond and brown locks. He needed a haircut. He glanced at his watch again. Should he call her? How many times had he done this very thing and then chickened out?

Taking a deep breath, he punched the icon on his phone and nervously drummed his fingertips on one jean-clad thigh while he waited for the overseas connection. When she suddenly answered the phone, his mouth was so dry he could barely speak.

“Why are ye calling me?”

He cleared his throat and finally croaked. “Still as cantankerous as ever, I see. No hello, Dal. Or how are ye today, Dal? I take it ye are still mad?”

There was a slight pause, then she sounded breathless. “W-Why wouldn’t I be?”

Why should she be? That was his question, but he didn’t voice it. “I don’t want to argue with ye, Ainsley,” he said with a sigh. “I just wanted to congratulate ye on yer graduation with honors. And to wish ye the best of luck with yer new job. Darro told me ye were starting at the medical examiner’s office.”

“Thank ye, Dal,” she replied, her voice strangely soft. “And congratulations to ye as well. I heard ye will begin working with Inverness Veterinary Services. Are ye happy to be through with Neamh’s internship?”

“I’m through with the internship, but I’ll still be the vet of record for Neamh and take care of Darro’s animals.”

“Oh, I see. Uh…that’s nice.”

Awkward silence, then Dal asked, “Are ye coming home any time soon?” There was a pause on her end, and then he swore he could feel her attitude change over the airwaves. When she spoke, his suspicions were confirmed.

“Nay, I don’t have any plans to come back for a while. At least not until Christmas, and that’s if I can save up some vacation time. I won’t be free to come and go now that I’m a working girl.” Her voice was stiff and defensive.

“Ye could work here,” he pointed out.

“I like Boston,” she snapped defensively.

“Then mayhap I’ll come over and visit ye,” he offered, trying to read her without seeing her face.

“What do ye want from me, Dal?” she finally whispered. “What we did was a mistake, ye have to see that.”

Anger raced through Dal’s veins. “Nay, I don’t see that,” he replied brusquely.

“Ye are just being stubborn and unwilling to admit ye might have feelings for me.”

“I haven’t heard any love language coming from ye either,” she chided. “Besides, how am I supposed to trust the ‘most eligible young bachelor in Inverness?”

“That was a reporter’s point of view,” Dal growled. “I never asked her to write that.”

“Don’t ye get it, Dal? Ye didn’t have to ask her, women fall all over ye and ye love it. Ye just stood there and smiled like a doofus and let her hang on yer arm while she sang yer praises.”

“Yer jealous,” he crowed in satisfaction. He could make do with jealousy. Anything was better than apathetic.

“I’m not jealous,” she denied hotly, “I just don’t want to watch it. It’s a good reminder not to get involved with ye.”

“We’re already involved.” He could have been an arse and reminded her that they became involved the moment she slid down on him in the hayloft. At least in his mind, they were involved. But he didn’t.

“No, we aren’t,” she practically yelled.

“Ainsley,” he growled, drawing her name out in a long-suffering, gravelly voice.  “If ye were here right now, I’d…”

“I know, I know,” she cut him off, “ye’d turn me over yer knee. Well, guess what? I don’t like that either, so that’s strike two.”

Dal seethed, wondering what strike three would be, but refused to lower himself enough to ask. First, she didn’t trust him, and now, secondly, she didn’t like spanking. The brat was making up excuses and lying to herself. “One of these days, Ainsley…read more

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